Posts Tagged ‘dragon con’

About a year ago I experienced a weekend of debauchery and chaos known as Dragon*Con for the first time. Having finally recovered from the shock to the system, it’s time to go back again. I was going to pass on it this year, but I caved to peer pressure and threats of violence against my person.

Unfortunately, Abney Park will not be there this time. As sad as that is, it’s offset by the fact that both Patrick Stewart and William Shatner will be. In related news, my new goal in life is to give Shatner a hug.

Preparations include a trip to Ricky’s NYC, a covert trip to Hot Topic*, watching at least one Star Wars/Star Trek movie and catching up on current pop culture fads so I know who the heck I’m looking at when I see cosplayers.

More to come later. Y’all have a great day!

– J

* Fun Fact: Last year I learned that nobody is allowed to buy Con accessories at Hot Topic, yet everybody DOES buy Con accessories at Hot Topic. It’s just not talked about.

The past week has involved a lot of overtime at work, being sick and not a lot of sleep. Sorry this took so long, and I hope you find it worth the wait (if indeed you were waiting).

Put the pitchfork down and blow out the torches Ali, here you go. As for the zombies in your care, Halloween is just around the corner and I’m sure they’ll be great fun at parties.

Saturday

A daily problem for me on any type of overnight outing is that I am an early riser. Doesn’t matter what time I go to bed or where I’m sleeping (be it my own bed or a nice hotel) I will be up around 8 AM every day fully rested or not. So I laid in bed passing in and out of consciousness waiting for my room mates come back to life. Eventually we were all up and went our separate ways.

Later on, Jon and I made our way to the Hyatt for the action short films at 1:00. While waiting for the doors to open we were thrilled to find Abney Park beginning an unplugged jam session! They clearly had a long night after their concert, but they still managed a great show complete with a pirate sing-a-long.

The members of the band dress steampunk most of the time. Personally, I wasn’t sold on steampunk right away. That was before meeting Finn Von Claret, at which point I pretty much fell in love with the whole idea. Finn is the background singer and interpretive dancer for Abney. Any woman that has “von” in her name and carries her microphone in a holster is fine by me. I’m thinking a winter wedding, but she wants to wait till next summer. I’ll let you know what we decide.

When they were done, we checked out the Action shorts (which left much to be desired). After scrounging some lunch we met back up with the girls at the hotel and decided to go swim a while. I left before everyone else and went to the panel entitled “Aliens Remembered” at 5:30. I was really excited because Aliens is one of my favorite trilogies (I deny the existence of Aliens 3, and therefore consider Alien Resurrection the third and final entry in the series). The panel was a Q & A session with Carrie Henn who played Newt and Lance Henriksen who played Bishop. Good times.

After the panel, I killed some time wandering around amidst the throngs of people in the various hotels. Narrowly avoiding an anxiety attack, I gave up trying to actually move around the crowds and returned to the hotel finding the pleasant surprise of some of Ali’s family who came to hang out. We ordered a pizza and were thoroughly entertained by a hilarious little boy (Ali, please provide details in the form of age, relation to you, and a name if you wish. I have drawn a complete blank. Sorry!).

Around 10:00 it was time to get ready for the Cruxshadows concert. This is one of the major draws for all Con goers and my hopes where pretty high. There are rules that have to be adhered to. Among them: Goth out, SOMEthing on your person must glow, and of course “hydration” is important. The metamorphosis process was quite fun to watch… Ali’s hair and makeup got more dramatic, Jean sprouted glowing blue horns while mine and Jon’s hair suddenly became irradiated. Jon looked sleek and sexy while I turned into the love-child of The Crow and the Joker (A croker?).

Here’s a little before and after for you… Yep, that’s what Con’ll do to you.

CS puts on quite a show, no doubt about it. Next year, I think I’ll opt for a spot more centered on the stage and not 10 feet away from the stage left speakers taller than I am. Eventually, my head couldn’t take much more. Headbanging while tipsy with loud music blaring, surprisingly enough, hurts.

So we went to a more calm environment. Something peaceful. A rave. I had never been to a rave and I have a feeling this wasn’t a very good example of one. All I know is I was allowed to sling around little glowing things to a very loud beat and had a lot of fun.

At some point in that night of craziness, I found Jesus. Whodathunk The Almighty was friends with Kevin Smith?

Around 3:30 or 4 in the morning we found ourselves back in the hotel room completely obliterated from the evenings events. There was nothing left to do but crash. And so we did.

Tune in tomorrowthis weekendnext week probably October for the exciting conclusion to the Dragon Con recap.

At the risk of physical injury I ask you to give me one more day, faithful readers. I’m sorry, but life and work got in the way tonight. Either tomorrow night or first thing Wednesday morning I’ll have the next installment for you.

“My knee is killing me, I’m partially deaf in my right ear and I sure hope I got all that black eye liner off last night.”

If that’s not the sign of a pretty awesome night, I don’t know what is.

Pictures to follow. Unfortunately, my camera decided to die as soon as we arrived. Jon however, being the generous person that he is, took plenty and I’ll be getting more to share very soon. In the meantime, here’s a recap of day one…

The flight out from Newark was uneventful which, when flying is concerned, is a good thing. With only a few bomb and fire jokes uttered passing through security Ali, Jean, Jon and I arrived in Atlanta. We stayed at the Hilton and had a nice room on the 6th floor with a view of the pool.

Before even making it to the lobby of the hotel I saw various anime characters, zombies and heard lots of pop culture references I did not understand. It was going to be a good weekend.

Checked in, we got dinner and began working out our remaining hours of Friday. Loving cartoons and Batman as I do, I decided on a panel entitled “The Animated History of Batman” at 8:30pm. I worked my way through the 3 hotels fighting my way past various incarnations of jedi, anime and comic book characters and steampunks (a fad I would soon learn to appreciate a lot more).

It was a fun panel, but not very educational. Apparently, the animation of Batman on the Scooby-Doo Show was designed for kids, while Batman – The Phantom Menace was aimed more towards an older audience. Never would have crossed my mind.

By 10:30 or 11 we had made it to the Abney Park concert. Or more accurately, the line for the Abney Park concert. The line left the hotel, went outside and around the corner where we waited on the sidewalk to be let in. Jon walked down the line to take pictures, Jean and Ali were talking and I set out on a personal quest to figure out What That Smell Was. It belonged to a very confused homeless man making his way up the street past the throngs of people in all forms of dress. I can only imagine the thoughts going through his head. I mean, I’m sure he’s used to being ignored by people, but probably not by Spiderman. When he got to us, he tried to get me to give him my beer. I, being the insensitive NYer that I am, told a homeless man that he couldn’t have my beer because it had “been a long day” and I was “still using it”. That settled I resumed conversing with the girls. Not only did he not go away, he took it upon himself to start making strange noises while staring at Jean. Ali and I positioned ourselves between them and, realizing he wasn’t getting a beer or a free show, he took the hint and moved on.

Once the line started moving, it went quickly and we got a great spot down front for the concert. Only a brief word on Abney Park as auditory description of this band would be an insult. They rock, I am officially a fan, and I recommend you check them out.

Concert over, we returned to our room and concluded day and night one at Dragon*Con. Days two and three coming soon. There’s glowing fluid and aliens involved. You’ll love it.

This Labor Day weekend I’ll be heading down to Atlanta, Georgia with 3 friends for 3 nights and 4 days of chaos known as Dragon*Con. It’s the largest Science Fiction convention in the world (actually, I can’t prove that – but it’s apparently really popular) and it’s a free for all of all things sci-fi, comic book, video game and stereotypically nerd related.

But J, you’re not a nerd! Why, you’re one of the coolest guys I’ve ever known!!

I know, I know. But I love Star Wars and Lord of the Rings as much as the next fellow, plus I have never been to anything like this and I love people watching. And what better forms of people watching can one ask for than a Miss Klingon Pageant, a Storm Trooper parade and cosplayers as far as the eye can see? Aside from daily panels and other activities there’s a round the clock short film theater open, concerts and parties galore. And let’s not forget the Robot Battles. I’m going with as open a mind as possible, anxious to do and see what this event has to offer.

Having three knowledgeable guides with me for this, my first D-Con, I will rely on their experience to humiliate me help me get the most out of my weekend. I’ll try and give a fun recap of what transpires once I get back and catch up on all the sleep I won’t be getting while I’m there.